Mr. John Tierney:

I do not believe there is any basis for making the analogy that Deputy Cowen made at the outset. In fact, the establishment of Irish Water is more analogous to what happened in the gas industry. During the early 1980s Bord Gáis Éireann brought together a collection of gas companies to form a high-performing utility model. Thirty years later we probably have the safest gas infrastructure in Europe and a model that delivers efficiencies year-on-year in the gas industry. That is why I believe the expertise of Bord Gáis has been so vital to the successful establishment of Irish Water.

Reference was made to efficiencies in respect of staffing levels. The direct capital and operational efficiencies that we referred to were €1.1 billion, but added to potential from income would have created savings to the Exchequer of €2 billion and we were clear about that-----